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Chapter
3 - How Columbus Gained a Queen For His Friend

When you wish very much to do a certain
thing it is dreadfully
hard to be patient; it is harder still to have to wait.
Columbus
had to do both. The wars against the Moors were of much
greater
interest to the king and queen of Spain than was the finding
of a
new and very uncertain way to get to Cathay. If it had
not been
for the patience and what we call the persistence of Columbus,
America would never have been discovered--at least not
in his
time.

He staid in Spain. He grew poorer and, poorer. He was
almost
friendless. It seemed as if his great enterprise must be
given
up. But he never lost hope. He never stopped trying. Even
when he
failed he kept on hoping and kept on trying. He felt certain
that
sometime he should succeed.

As we have seen, he tried to interest the rulers of different
countries, but with no success. He tried to get help from
his old
home-town of Genoa and failed; he tried Portugal and failed;
he
tried the Republic of Venice and failed; he tried the king
and
queen of Spain and failed; he tried some of the richest
and most
powerful of the nobles of Spain and failed; he tried the
king of
England (whom he got his brother, Bartholomew Columbus,
to go and
see) and failed. There was still left the king of France.
He
would make one last attempt to win the king and queen of
Spain to
his side and if he failed with them he would try the last
of the
rulers of Western Europe, the king of France.

He followed the king and queen of Spain as they went from
place
to place fighting the Moors. He hoped that some day, when
they
wished to think of something besides fighting, they might
think
of him and the gold and jewels and spices of Cathay.

The days grew into months, the
months to years, and still the war
against the Moors kept on; and still Columbus waited for
the
chance that did not come. People grew to know him as "the
crazy
explorer" as they met him in the streets or on the
church steps
of Seville or Cordova, and even ragged little boys of the
town,
sharp-eyed and shrill- voiced as all such ragged little
urchins
are, would run after this big man with the streaming white
hair
and the tattered cloak, calling him names or tapping their
brown
little foreheads with their dirty fingers to show that
even they
knew that he was "as crazy as a loon."

At last he decided to make one more attempt before giving
it up
in Spain. His money was gone; his friends were few; but
he
remembered his acquaintances at Palos and so he journeyed
back to
see once more his good friend Friar Juan Perez at the Convent
of
Rabida on the hill that looked out upon the Atlantic he
was so
anxious to cross.

It was in the month of November, 1491, that he went back
to the
Convent of Rabida. If he could not get any encouragement
there,
he was determined to stay in Spain no longer but to go
away and
try the king of France.

Once more he talked over the finding of Cathay with the
priests
and the sailors of Palos. They saw how patient he was;
how
persistent he was; how he would never give up his ideas
until he
had tried them. They were moved by his determination. They
began
to believe in him more and more. They resolved to help
him. One
of the principal sea captains of Palos was named Martin
Alonso
Pinzon. He became so interested that he offered to lend
Columbus
money enough to make one last appeal to the king and queen
of
Spain, and if Columbus should succeed with them, this Captain
Pinzon said that he would go into partnership with Columbus
and
help him out when it came to getting ready to sail to Cathay.

This was a move in the right direction. At once a messenger
was
sent to the splendid Spanish camp before the city of Granada,
the
last unconquered city of the Moors of Spain. The king and
queen
of Spain had been so long trying to capture Granada that
this
camp was really a city, with gates and walls and houses.
It was
called Santa Fe. Queen Isabella, who was in Santa Fe, after
some
delay, agreed to hear more about the crazy scheme of this
persistent Genoese sailor, and the Friar Juan Perez was
sent for.
He talked so well in behalf of his friend Columbus that
the queen
became still more interested. She ordered Columbus to come
and
see her, and sent him sixty-five dollars to pay for a mule,
a new
suit of clothes and the journey to court.

About Christmas time, in the year 1491, Columbus, mounted
upon
his mule, rode into the Spanish camp before the city of
Granada.
But even now, when he had been told to come, he had to
wait.
Granada was almost captured; the Moors were almost conquered.
At
last the end came. On the second of January, 1492, the
Moorish
king gave up the keys of his beloved city, and the great
Spanish
banner was hoisted on the highest tower of the Alhambra--the
handsomest building in Granada and one of the most beautiful
in
the world. The Moors were driven out of Spain and Columbus's
chance had come.

So he appeared before Queen Isabella and her chief men
and told
them again of all his plans and desires. The queen and
her
advisers sat in a great room in that splendid Alhambra
I have
told you of. King Ferdinand was not there. He did not believe
in
Columbus and did not wish to let him have either money,
ships or
sailors to lose in such a foolish way. But as Columbus
stood
before her and talked so earnestly about how he expected
to find
the Indies and Cathay and what he hoped to bring away from
there,
Queen Isabella listened and thought the plan worth trying.

Then a singular thing happened.
You would think if you wished for
something very much that you would be ve up a good deal
for the
sake of getting it. Columbus had worked and waited for
seventeen
years. He had never got what he wanted. He was always being
disappointed. And yet, as he talked to the queen and told
her
what he wished to do, he said he must have so much as a
reward
for doing it that the queen and her chief men were simply
amazed
at his--well, what the boys to-day call "cheek"--that
they would
have nothing to do with him. This man really is crazy,
they said.
This poor Genoese sailor comes here without a thing except
his
very odd ideas. and almost "wants the earth" as
a reward. This is
not exactly what they said, but it is what they meant.

His few friends begged him to be more modest. Do not ask
so much,
they said, or you will get nothing. But Columbus was determined.
I have worked and waited all these years, he replied. I
know just
what I can do and just how much I can do for the king and
queen
of Spain. They must pay me what I ask and promise what
I say, or
I will go somewhere else. Go, then! said the queen and
her
advisers. And Columbus turned his back on what seemed almost
his
last hope, mounted his mule and rode away.

Then something else happened. As Columbus rode off to
find the
French king, sick and tired of all his long and useless
labor at
the Spanish court, his few firm friends there saw that,
unless
they did something right away, all the glory and all the
gain of
this enterprise Columbus had taught them to believe in
would be
lost to Spain. So two of them, whose names were Santangel
and
Quintanilla, rushed into the queen's room and begged her,
if she
wished to become the greatest queen in Christendom, to
call back
this wandering sailor, agree to his terms and profit by
his
labors.

What if he does ask a great deal? they said. He has spent
his
life thinking his plan out; no wonder he feels that he
ought to
have a good share of what he finds. What he asks is really
small
compared with what Spain will gain. The war with the Moors
has
cost you ever so much; your money-chests are empty; Columbus
will
fill them up. The people of Cathay are heathen; Columbus
will
help you make them Christian men. The Indies and Cathay
are full
of gold and jewels; Columbus will bring you home shiploads
of
treasures. Spain has conquered the Moors; Columbus will
help you
conquer Cathay.

In fact, they talked to Queen Isabella so strongly and
so
earnestly, that she, too, became excited over this chance
for
glory and riches that she had almost lost, Quick! send
for
Columbus. Call him back! she said. I agree to his terms.
If King
Ferdinand cannot or will not take the risk, I, the queen,
will do
it all. Quick! do not let the man get into France. After
him.
Bring him back!

And without delay a royal messenger, mounted on a swift
horse,
was sent at full gallop to bring Columbus back.

All this time poor Columbus felt
bad enough. Everything had gone
wrong. Now he must go away into a new land and do it all
over
again. Kings and queens, he felt, were not to be depended
upon,
and he remembered a place in the Bible where it said: "Put
not
your trust in princes." Sad, solitary and heavy-hearted,
he
jogged slowly along toward the mountains, wondering what
the king
of France would say to him, and whether it was really worth
trying.

Just as he was riding across the little bridge called
the Bridge
of Pinos, some six miles from Granada, he heard the quick
hoof-beats of a horse behind him. It was a great spot for
robbers, and Columbus felt of the little money he had in
his
traveling pouch, and wondered whether he must lose it all.
The
hoof-beats came nearer. Then a voice hailed him. Turn back,
turn
back! the messenger cried out. The queen bids you return
to
Granada. She grants you all you ask.

Columbus hesitated. Ought he to trust this promise, he
wondered.
Put not your trust in princes, the verse in the Bible had
said.
If I go back I may only be put off and worried as I have
been
before. And yet, perhaps she means what she says. At any
rate, I
will go back and try once more.

So, on the little Bridge of Pinos,
he turned his mule around and
rode back to Granada. And, sure enough, when he saw Queen
Isabella she agreed to all that he asked. If he found Cathay,
Columbus was to be made admiral for life of all the new
seas and
oceans into which he might sail; he was to be chief ruler
of all
the lands he might find; he was to keep one tenth part
of all the
gold and jewels and treasures he should bring away, and
was to
have his "say" in all questions about the new
lands. For his part
(and this was because of the offer of his friend at Palos,
Captain Pinzon) he agreed to pay one eighth of all the
expenses
of this expedition and of all new enterprises, and was
to have
one eighth of all the profits from them.

So Columbus had his wish at last.
The queen's men figured up how
much money they could let him have; they called him "Don
Christopher Columbus," "Your Excellency" and "Admiral," and
at
once he set about getting ready for his voyage.